Ionic Greek was a sub-dialect of the Attic-Ionic dialectal group of
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
(see Greek dialects).
Ionic (or Ionian) dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.
By the end of the
Greek Dark AgesThe Greek Dark Ages and Greek Dark Age are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean Palatial civilization around 1200 BC, to the first signs of the Greek city-states in the 9th century BC...
in the 5th Century B.C, the central west coast of Asia Minor, along with the islands of
ChiosChios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
and
SamosSamos is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor.-Geography:...
, formed the heartland of
IoniaIonia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
proper. The Ionic dialect was also spoken on islands across the central Aegean and on the large island of
EuboeaFor the mythological figure, see Euboea Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from the mainland of Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait...
north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean, the
Black Seaur a loser!The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to...
, and the western Mediterranean.
Ionic dialect is generally divided into four major time periods, Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian). The exact transition between the two is not clearly defined, but 600 B.C. is a good approximation.
The Homeric works (the
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
, the
OdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of...
, and the
Homeric HymnsThe thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek hymns, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— dactylic hexameter— as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect...
), and the works of
HesiodHesiod was a Greek oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least Herodotus's time , Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often...
, were written in a literary dialect called
Homeric GreekHomeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in dactylic...
or Epic Greek, which consists largely of Old Ionic, with some borrowings from the neighboring Aeolic dialect to the north. The poet
ArchilochusArchilochus was a Classical Greek poet and supposed mercenary.-Life and poetry:The details of his life are inferred from his poetry, doubtless including details that were traditional in Antiquity: "it is often easiest and certainly entertaining to imagine that the words spoken in a poem are those...
wrote in late Old Ionic.
The most famous New Ionic authors are
AnacreonAnacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
,
TheognisTheognis of Megara was an ancient Greek poet. More than half of the extant elegiac poetry of Greece before the Alexandrian period is included in the 1,400 verses ascribed to Theognis. -Collection:...
,
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
,
HippocratesHippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos - Greek: ; Hippokrátēs was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
and in Roman times
AretaeusAretaeus , is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek physicians, of whose life, however, few particulars are known. There is some uncertainty regarding both his age and country, but it seems probable that he practised in the 1st century CE, during the reign of Nero or...
,
ArrianLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman period...
, and
LucianLucian of Samosata was an Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.-Biography:...
.
The main differences between the Ionic dialect (Old and New) and Classical Attic were the following:
- In Ionic, the shift from long alpha to eta occurs in almost all words, whereas in Attic it does not occur after eta, iota, or rho. Example: Attic νεανίας (ne-a-ní-as) versus Ionic νεηνίης (ne-ē-ní-ēs), a "young person". Often the simple vowel ε or o of Attic dialect appears in Ionic as a diphthong (κούρη, koúrē, "old lady, girl", for κόρη, kórē; πείρας, peíras "end, border" for πέρας, péras). Among Greek dialects, Ionic is the one that is the fondest of long vowels and was thus considered especially suited to solo singing; the more austere, broad-sounding Doric was preferred in choral singing.
- In many cases Ionic turned Proto-Greek labiovelar sound /kw/ into /k/ rather than /p/ before back vowels. Example: Attic ὅπως (hópōs) versus Ionic ὄκως (ókōs), "in whatever way, in which way". It is worth mentioning that similar divergent outcomes for /kw/ occurred also in Celtic
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in...
and ItalicThe Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan, and Latin itself.In the past various definitions of "Italic" have prevailed...
branches of the Indo-European language family, for example between LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and OscanOscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic language family, which is a branch of Indo-European that also includes Umbrian, Latin, and Faliscan....
, as well as between P-Celtic (WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
) and Q-Celtic (IrishIrish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...
) — e.g. WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
pump, BretonThe Breton language is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France.-History:Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish,...
pemp, CornishThe Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
pymp vs. Gaelic cóig or cùig, IrishIrish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...
cúig, ManxManx , also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the subject of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the , a primary school for four- to...
queig (note the treatment of the same consonant in English with this word meaning "five ").
- Ionic contracted adjoining vowels much less frequently than Attic. Example: Ionic γένεα (gén-e-a) versus Attic γένη (gén-ē), "family, stock".
- Ionic "ss" appears as "tt" in later Classical Attic. Example: Ionic τέσσαρες (téssares) versus Attic τέτταρες (téttares), "four".
- Ionic had a very analytical word-order, perhaps the most analytical one within ancient Greek dialects. Moreover the Ionic morphology of noun and verb doesn't have dual-forms.
- In some words, Attic initial aspiration was lacking in Old Ionic (the so called "psilosis"), and in New Ionic initial aspiration was probably lost entirely. Example: Attic ἵππος (híppos) versus Ionic ἴκκος (íkkos), "horse".
Ionic acquired prestige among Greek speakers because of its association with the language used by
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
, the writings of
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, and the close linguistic relationship with the
AtticAn attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . As attics fill the space between the ceiling of the top floor of a building and the slanted roof, they are known for being awkwardly shaped spaces with exposed rafters and difficult-to-access corners...
dialect spoken in Athens. This was further enhanced by the writing reform implemented in Athens in 403 BC, whereby the old Attic alphabet was replaced by the Ionic one, as used by the city of
MiletusMiletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
. This alphabet eventually became the standard Greek alphabet used thereafter, its use becoming uniform during the Koine era. It was also the alphabet used by the Apostles to write the
GospelA gospel is a writing that describes the life of Jesus. The word is primarily used to refer to the four canonical texts: the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John, probably written between AD 65 and 80...
s and
ActsActs or ACTS may mean:* Aboriginal Christian Television System* Acts of the Apostles , a genre of early Christian literature* Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book in the Bible's New Testament...
.
Glossary
- ábdês scourge ( Hipponax
Hipponax of Ephesus was an Ancient Greek iambic poet.Expelled from Ephesus in 540 BC by the tyrant Athenagoras, he took refuge in Clazomenae, where he spent the rest of his life in poverty. His deformed figure and malicious disposition exposed him to the caricature of the Chian sculptors Bupalus...
.98)
- áethlon (Attic athlon prize)
- aeinaûtai archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In the early literary period of...
tes in MiletusMiletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
and ChalcisChalcis or Chalkida, Halkida, Halkis or Chalkis , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point...
(aeí always + naûtai sailors)
- algeíē illness (Cf.Attic algēdṓn pain) Algophobia
Algophobia is a phobia of pain - an abnormal and persistent fear of pain that is far more powerful than that of a normal person. It can be treated with behavioral therapy and anti-anxiety medication....
- ámpōtis ebb,being sucked back, i.e. of sea (Attic anápōtis, verb anapínō) (Koine,Modern Greek ampotis)
- anou (Attic ánō, up)
- Apatoúria Pan-ionic festival ( see also Panionium
The Panionium was an Ionian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios and the meeting place of the Ionian League. It was on the peninsula of Mt. Mycale, about south of Smyrna—now İzmir, in Turkey...
)
- appallázein (Attic ekklesiázein
Ecclesia or ekklesia may refer to:* the Christian Church**See Church militant and church triumphant for ecclesia militans, ecclesia penitens, ecclesia triumphans...
gather together,decide) (Doric apellaApella was the official title of the popular assembly in the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia in most other Greek states...
zein)
- achántion (Attic akánthion small thorn acanthus
Acanthus is the Latinized form of the Greek Acanthos or Akanthos. It can also be used as the prefix Acantho-, meaning 'thorny'...
)
- báthrakoi (Attic bátrachoi, frogs) in Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Pontos...
babakoi
- broûkos species of locust
Locust is the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. The origin and apparent extinction of certain species of locust—some of which reached 6 inches in length—are unclear....
(Attic akrís) (Cypriots call the green locust broúka)
- byssós (Attic bythós depth,bottom,chaos)
- gánnos Ephesian
Ephesus was an ancient Roman and Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek period....
(Attic huainaThe Hyaenidae is a mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family, native to both African and Asian continents, consists of four living species, the Striped Hyena and Brown Hyena , the Spotted Hyena , and the Aardwolf .-Evolution:Hyenas seem to have originated 26 million years ago from...
(glanos AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
.HA594a31.) (PhrygianThe Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor.-Inscriptions:Phrygian is attested by two corpora, one from around 800 BC and later , and then after a period of several centuries from around the beginning of the Common Era...
and TsakonianTsakonian, Tsaconian, Tzakonian or Tsakonic is a highly divergent dialect of modern Greek or a separate language spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. It is named after its speakers, the 'Tsakonians', which is held to be an alteration of 'Laconians' - although Tsakonians...
ganos
- eídē (Attic hýle forest) (Aeolic Greek
Aeolic or Aeolian Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia , in Lesbos and in other Greek colonies.The Aeolic dialect shows many archaisms, in comparison to the other Greek dialects Aeolic or Aeolian Greek (also known...
eide also) (Greek EidosEidos is a Greek word meaning "image", "form", or "shape". The term became significant in Greek philosophy when Plato used it to refer to the ideal Forms or Ideas in his Theory of Forms...
)
- enthaûta here (entoutha also) (Attic entaûtha) (Elean entaûta)
- ergýlos (Attic ergátēs worker)
- hestiâchos ionic epithet for Zeus ,related to Hestia
In Greek mythology, virgin Hestia, daughter of Cronus and Rhea, is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official...
(oikourós, housekeeper, oikônax)
- ēgós (Attic eudaímon happy) (Hesychius s.v. ) (τ 114)
- êélios (Attic hḗlios
In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
sun) (Cretan abelios)
- Iastí, "the ionic way" ( , Iáones, Ionians; , Iás, old name of Attica, Strabo
Strabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
IX, 1.5 )
- ídē forested mountain (Attic drymôn óros) (Herodotus
Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
4,109,2) (Mount IdaIn Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in Turkey, which known as Phrygian Ida in Classical times...
)
- iētrós,iētēr (Attic iatrós,iatēr doctor)
- íkkos (Attic híppos ,horse) (Mycenaean i-qo )
- kárē head (Common kara) (Poetic kras)
- kithṓn (Attic chitṓn
A chiton was a form of clothing worn by men and women in Ancient Greece, from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic period . There are two forms of chiton, the Doric chiton and the later Ionic chiton. The "Doric" style was simpler and had no "sleeves," being simply pinned, sewn, or buttoned at...
)
- koeîn (Attic noeîn to think) noesis
Noesis is a word meaning "understanding as the ability to sense, or know something, immediately".-Etymology:...
- koîos (Attic poîos who?)
- kýthrē (Attic chýtra cooking pot)
- mýttax (Attic pṓgōn beard)
- Xouthidai Ionians from Xuthus
In Greek mythology, Xuthus was a son of Hellen and Orseis and founder of the Achaean and Ionian nations. He had two sons by Creusa: Ion and Achaeus and a daughter named Diomede....
- odmḗ (Attic osmḗ scent, smell)
- pēlós thick wine, lees
Lees refers to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and aging. The yeast deposits in beer brewing are known as trub...
(Attic πηλός pelós mud, siltSilt is soil or rock derived granular material of a grain size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
) (proverbial phraseA proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context.Another similar construction...
mê dein ton OineaIn Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus was a Calydonian king, son of Porthaon, husband of Althaea and father of Deianira, Meleager and Melanippe. He introduced winemaking to Aetolia, which he learned from Dionysus. The sons of his brother Agrius deposed him but Diomedes put Oeneus back on the...
PêleaIn Greek mythology, Pēleús was a hero who was already known to Homer. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he became the father of Achilles...
poiein , don't make wine into lees, Ath.9.383c, cf. Demetr.Eloc.171)
- rhêchíê flood-tide , loanword to Attic as rhachía (Homeric,Koine,Modern Greek plêmmurís -ída)
- sabakís (Attic sathrís decayed) Chian
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
- sármoi lupin
Lupins or lupines are the members of the genus Lupinus in the legume family . The genus comprises between 200 and 600 species, with major centers of diversity in South America and western North America, in the Mediterranean region and Africa.The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants...
s (Attic thermoi} CarystianCarystus was an ancient city-state on Euboea. In the Iliad it is controlled by the Abantes. By the time of Thucydides it was inhabited by Dryopians.- Persian War :...
- skorpízô scatter, disperse (probably from skorpios scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about 49° N, except New Zealand and Antarctica...
and an obsolete verb skerpô ,penetrate)
- taûuroi (Attic tauroi bulls) (Ephesian word, the youths who acted as cupbearers at the local festival of Poseidon
In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
)
- phoinikḗia grámmata Lydians
Lydians were the inhabitants of Lydia, a region in western Anatolia. Their capital was at Sardis. Their recorded history of statehood, which covers three dynasties,manyak,sharmoot,haywaan came to an abrubt end after a military defeat in the 6th century BC, while the account of their roots, mixed...
and Ionians called so the lettersA letter is an element in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Each letter in the written language is usually associated with one phoneme in the spoken form of the language....
- chlossós (Attic ichthús fish)
- ô oioî exclamation of discontent